The rules for Canada's notice-and-notice regime will change following the passing of C-86, the Budget Implementation Act. Moving forward, rightsholders will not be allowed to send copyright infringement notices for ISPs to pass onto their customers, if they contain a direct or indirect offer to settle. The development effectively ends Rightscorp-style business models in Canada.
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Battlestate Games Issues Dozens of DMCA Takedowns to ‘Silence’ YouTuber

Battlestate Games, the company behind the multiplayer shooter game Escape from Tarkov, has issued dozens of DMCA takedown requests against YouTuber Eroktic. While it's commonly known that DMCA notices can only be used to address copyright infringement, the game developer publicly admits that they used it to "stop misinformation and hatred" from spreading.
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New Zealand's National Party has won its appeal against Eminem's publishers. The party was previously ordered to pay $600,000 for infringing the copyrights of Eminem's track "Lose Yourself" in a 2014 election spot. But, on appeal, the damages amount was reduced to $225,000.
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Following a high-profile order at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals this summer, copyright holders are facing a roadblock in their quest to demand settlements from alleged file-sharers. Referencing the August order, federal courts in districts across the US are demanding more evidence than an IP-address alone.
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After being ordered to block a number of piracy-related domains following a complaint from academic publisher Elsevier, Swedish ISP Bahnhof retaliated by semi-blocking Elsevier's own website and barring the court from visiting Bahnhof.se. Those actions have now prompted Sweden's telecoms watchdog to initiate an inquiry to determine whether the ISP breached net neutrality rules.
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The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent are in again. 'First Man' tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Venom'. 'Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle' completes the top three.
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A Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for a 'sizzle reel' to pitch a horror story collection to production companies has been hit with a takedown notice. According to Warner Bros., The Monster Book of Monsters Film Project infringes copyright by using the same title as a book featured in the series created by J K Rowling.
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Shuttered Leechers Paradise Tracker Will Rise From the Dead to Serve Millions

Leechers Paradise, one of the world's longest-standing and most important BitTorrent trackers, recently shut down after 12 years serving hundreds of millions of torrent users. Now, however, a return is on the horizon. Speaking with TorrentFreak, the site's former operator says the service will rise again, but this time with improved security for its new operator.
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Earlier this week the European Union published its very first 'Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List'. The goal is to identify problematic "pirate" sites and encourage foreign enforcement authorities and governments to take action in response. However, things haven't gone entirely to plan.
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Streaming set-top boxes are popular among cord-cutters and millions of people use them to access movies, TV-shows, and livestreams. While these devices can be used for legitimate purposes, quite a few ship with questionable apps that can be used to access "pirate" content. When these are promoted by mainstream media outlets, the movie industry starts asking questions.
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Four lawsuits filed by companies under the umbrella of broadcasting giant Gazprom-Media against leading Russian search engine Yandex are set to conclude in settlement agreements. The signing of an anti-piracy memorandum last month between search engines and rightsholders played a key role in the amicable conclusion.
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An unnamed Australian company has agreed to pay a AU$160,000 piracy settlement to the Software Alliance. The manufacturing outfit reportedly used commercial software without a proper license. The copyright infringement was revealed following a tip from an informant who will receive a healthy AU$10,000 reward.
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The EU is not only cracking down on copyright-infringing content, there's a strong focus on terrorist material too. The EU Commision recently proposed new regulations that would require hosting platforms to remove terrorist content within one hour, or face consequences. This week member states gave the plan a green light, which goes well beyond Article 13.
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Rightsholders including music group IFPI have written an open letter expressing deep concerns over the latest text of the proposed Article 13. According to the industry giants, the current proposal would need fundamental changes to address the so-called 'Value Gap' and could, if passed in its current form, end up leaving rightsholders worse off than they currently are.
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Nintendo has filed a lawsuit against a California man and several unnamed defendants. They are accused of selling pirated Nintendo Switch and NES Classic games, as well as offering modding services. The complaint lists various counts of copyright and trademark infringement and Nintendo requests an injunction to halt future sales.
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A federal grand jury in California has indicted five men for allegedly offering pre-release copies of hundreds of movies and TV shows via the Internet. The individuals, from the UK, India, United Arab Emirates, and Malaysia, are reported to have hacked into Hollywood film production companies in order to obtain copies of The Expendables 3, The Walking Dead, and other popular titles.
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The CCIA, which represents global tech firms including Cloudflare, Google, and Facebook, is warning the U.S. Government against the EU's copyright reform plans. According to the tech giants, Article 13 could result in significant economic consequences for the U.S. digital economy, with a possible ripple effect on the rest of the world.
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Media giants Bell and Videotron have filed a criminal complaint against a Canada-based IPTV provider. In response, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) carried out a search at the residence of a former employee of a Videotron subcontractor, seizing equipment allegedly used to offer unlicensed TV channels to subscribers for around $35 per month.
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Under Russian law, search engine operators are required to censor their search results to ensure that permanently blocked sites do not appear in their indexes. After failing to comply by interfacing its systems with the national FGIS blacklist database, Google has now been fined 500,000 rubles (US$7,545), the lowest amount that can be levied under existing laws.
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